Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-08-03
The Markrille Guqnirer.
YORKVILLE. s. G.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1887.
uFAIR PLAY" STILL EARNING HIS PAY.

"FAIR PLAY" STILL EARNING HIS PAY.
The perambulating and periphrastic
writer signing himself "Fair Play" and
whose special mission just now seems to
be to regulate the affairs of York county,
is out in a second communication to the
public press-an effusion more verbose
than his first, and in the same proportion
Astounding in falsehood and misrepresenta-
ton. But for the wanton attacks of this
paid scribbler upon the fair fame of York
Vile and the charge he makes that the
subscription of York to the Chester and
Lenoir Railroad was procured by improp-
er influence of Pleading citizens of the
town over the county commissioners, we
should pass his anonymous and puerile
attempts unnoticed. AS a specimen of his
falsehood and vituperation, we quote from
his second article:
"Without any public discussion of the mat
ter, Judge Mackey, the circuit judge of this
district, a citizen of Chester and interested in
the road, presumably with the concurrence
and connivance Of leading citizens of York
vile, and probably at their instigation, sent
for the commissioners and told them that they
had full authority to make the subscription,
even, it is said, putting it upon the ground Of
their general power to construct highways.
ALI of the power and influence of certain citi-
zens of Yorkville, acting in secret, were brought
to bear upon the commissioners, and before
any one else in the county was aware of what
was going on, q subscription Of $780, 600 was
made. It is true that absolute corruption OF
the commissioners has not been charged, but
there can be no doubt Of the influence used,
and scarcely any of the fact that the votes OF
Yorkville were promised to one of the COM
for the sheritfalty. Certainly he got them, and
against a citizen of Yorkville, at that. y u e
The record shows that the subscription was
made April ii, 1873. challenge the ENQUIRER
to state when it first published the fact. L
challenge him further to deny that for some
cognizant of the fact that the subscription had
been made" ......
Now, as to this tissue of falsehoOd we
have only to say that a public meeting Of
citizens of the county was held in the Court
House on the 18th of April, in which adj
dresses favorable to the enterprise were
made by a number of gentlemen, and a
resolution was adopted requesting the
county commissioners to order an election.
The proceedings of this meeting were
published in the ENQUIRER of the 10th Of
April. On the 18th of April the county
commissioners held a meeting, and with
out any influence having been brought
to bear upon them in any way, so far as
we know, made the subscription, a full Of
fetal notice of which was published in the
next issue of the ENQUIRER, viz: April
18th. There was not the opportunity for
us to have known of the subscription "for
weeks previous to publishing it" for
the reason that il was made only six days
previous to our day of publication, and the
action of the county commissioners was
not kept a profound secret.
"Fair Play" again betrays his ignorance
when he attempts to give a bit of politi-
cal intrigue, his version of which can only
excite ridicule when read. His allusion
to the candidacy of n of the county COM
missioners for the Office of sheriff. and that
'the votes Of Yorkville were promised"
him against a citizen of the town, is en-
tirely too weak to require serious notice.
The facts are that the approaching"
election for sheriff wa then three years in
future, and no aspirants were in the
field at all. In 1876, when the Hampton
movement WAS made, party linesin York,
for the last time, were closely drawn. The
candidates of both parties were nominated
by convention. The Democrats nomina-
ted Capt. r. H.. Glenn, "a citizen of the
town, at that" who moved here from the
country after his first election to the Of
flee, and the Republicans nominated Mr..
X. Roberts, one of the county COM
m~issioners who made the county subscrip-
ton. Glenn received at Yorkville 52l
votes, the total white or Democratic vote
at this precinct being 443, while Roberts
ran at this box behind every candi-
date on his ticket. "Fair Play" gra-
admits that "absolute corruption of
the commissioners has not been charged"
and we contend that nothing approaching
corruption on the part of the commission
ers has ever been proved.
The management of the Chester and
Lenoir Railroad did not turn it yer to a
"foreign corporation" as "Fair Play"
charges; but when the road was leased by
the stockholders and directors it was con-
veyed to the Charlotte, Columbia and
Augusta Railroad, then under control of
its own stockholders. True, the dividend
of u per cent, besides the amount de-
rived from taxation, may not seem large
to one who has in his disinterested eye
only a $500, 900 county subscription in bonds
bearing interest at I per cent, payable
semi.annually; but with a full appre-
citation of the Importance of the Charles
ton, Cincinnati and Chicago line, we doubt
if our people will ever derive more from it.
"Fair Play" while drawing his pay,
seems to have as the motive for his effu-
sions an attempt to make the methods for
securing a county subscription, as adopted
by the corporation of which he is so val
liant a champion, appear respectable in the
eyes of the public by odious comparisons,
he creating the premises from which he
makes his deductions, and in a latent man.
ner to advocate a county subscription by
reviving dead issues which we believe
citizens of our own county, irrespective
of past p%rejudices, now have no desire to
reopen. Such a method may commend
itself to "Fair Play" and those of his ilk,
but it will prove as futile as did the recent
attempt TO induce five townships of York
county to foist upon five others, apart of an
Indebtedness which the second-named five
had no voice in contracting.
In the case of the Chester and LenOir